Traffic and application rates increased on the state’s new health insurance exchange in late October, but the government still won’t say how many Californians have been able to complete the enrollment process since Covered California launched on Oct. 1.

More than 2.1 million Californians visited the state’s website through Oct. 26, and 210,061 have spoken to call center operators, according to a statement released by the exchange. Nearly 180,000 households filed applications to buy a exchange-listed plan.

The update shows that, though the state’s exchange has suffered from some glitches, it is getting interest from the 5.3 million Californians estimated to qualify for coverage through the exchange.

But because Covered California is reporting households, and there is often more than one person living in each, it is hard to say exactly how close the exchange is to hitting its initial goal. The state expects to enroll 500,000 to 700,000 Californians during the open enrollment period that runs through March 31.

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The latest batch of weekly numbers, though, does show that interest in the exchange and the plans it offers may be on the rise, with the number of applications, website visitors and call center queries all ticking up from levels seen in October’s third week.

But the number of applications is not the ultimate truth about interest in health reform plans. Anyone who applies can still back out until the plan they select enrolls them in coverage and collects their first-month premium.

Enrollment data, however, so far has not been disclosed.

Anne Gonzales, a spokeswoman for Covered California, said in an email that the number of enrollments will not be released until mid-November. It’s the exact same thing that the head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services told the House Ways and Means Committee Tuesday.

Like CMS, Covered California has been vague about why it won’t release the number of enrollees, saying only that it decided in September not to release the information until November.

“We are not withholding numbers. We are following the guidelines we adopted for reporting enrollment, and that strategy was adopted so we can concentrate resources on day-to-day operations,” Gonzales said.

In order to complete enrollment, health exchanges must forward identifying information, including name and social security number, to the health plan that each person, or family, selects. Gonzales declined to say whether any information transfers have occurred.

John Cihomsky, a Sharp HealthCare spokesman, said Thursday that Sharp Health Plan, which is offering several policies for sale in the exchange’s San Diego region, received notification that 240 local residents have begun enrolling in its plans. He said Sharp expects to get “initial enrollment files” from the exchange this week so it can begin processing the information next week.

“We expect numbers to increase in the weeks and months ahead,” Cihomsky said.

The other five health plans operating in San Diego did not respond to similar requests for information.

Gonzales did say that Covered California has been able to verify applicants’ incomes “in real-time” using a federal data hub.